Nigeria Police: A Service Scheduled For Supreme Sacrifice?

By Bala Ibrahim

Every job or service has its own hazard or hazards, depending on the relationship between the worker, the task, the tools and the environment of assignment. In Nigeria, the duties of the police are spelt out as follows:

The prevention and detection of crime. The apprehension of offenders. The preservation of law and order. And finally, but most importantly, the protection of life and property. However, for some reasons that seem bizarre, while the Police is assigned the duty of protecting the life and property of the citizenry, his own life is left exposed to the possibility of being harmed, all the time.The police ethics enjoins him or her to move around always with the following quote in mind:

“I will maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn or ridicule, develop self-restraint, and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought and deed, both in my personal and official life, I will be exemplary in obeying the law and the regulations of my department and country”.

Last night, some Nigerians, the people of Kano state in particular, slept in agony, because of the sad story of a ghastly road accident, wherein at least five police officers attached to the Kano State Police Command were confirmed killed. According to the Kano police command’s spokesperson, SP Abdullahi Haruna, the auto accident occurred along the Kano-Zaria highway, in the wee hours of Tuesday. 11 others were also left with different degrees of injuries. SP Abdullahi said the accident happened around Karfi Village, Kura Local Government Area of Kano State, while the officers were on their way back to Kano from an official assignment. A trailer was attempting to reverse on the main road, and it rammed into the oncoming police vehicle.This is sad.

All the scriptures have told us, and we believe that indeed death is inevitable. Yes, every mortal shall die, but how he or she is going to die is the unknown. Some die peacefully in their sleep. Some die in the hospital. Some die as a result of over air-conditioning. Some die as a result of over feeding. While others die due to anxiety,  occasioned by the over comfort of excessive accumulation of wealth, ill gotten wealth. They would all be classified as deaths, but some deaths come as tragedies, or even catastrophes, because of the way they happened. For some reasons, some members of the Nigeria Police Service, by design or deliberate neglect, seem destined for catastrophic death. Why?

Indeed, Police officers know that each time they put on their uniform, they are taking risks to protect others. The system that puts them on such assignment must reckon with the fact that these police officers are putting their lives on the line, for the protection of others. Sometimes, in the discharge of these duties, the police insist on checking the roadworthiness of vehicles that ply the streets, in order to ensure that they are in suitable operating condition for safe driving and transportation of people or cargo. The ambition of the police is to promote safety on public roads by reducing danger to the passengers or other road users. Yet, in most cases, their own operational vehicles are road worthless. Apart from the issue of overwork, which is largely due to poor staff strength, police on duty in Nigeria do not have enough rest, talk less of the time to adequately prepare for the next challenge. Nigeria currently has a little over 370,000 Police Officers, which is just about 1:600 Police-Citizen ratio. This leaves them under a permanent stress threat, that takes advantage of their vulnerability.

If a thorough investigation were to be made on the Kano police accident, apart from questioning the mental health of the truck driver, for reversing a trailer on the Highway, the vehicle carrying the police officers on duty may also fail the test of road worthiness. It may also be road worthless. They were sent on a national assignment, in a rickety vehicle, that was probably without brakes. And the poor police met their deaths, dreadfully. There is no single day in Nigeria today, that you don’t hear of the police being killed in one mishap or another. The news is always of unlucky accidents, and the poor police are the victims. Why? Is the police service scheduled for Supreme sacrifice?

Numerous researches have indicated that the Nigeria police officers have an elevated risk of death, relative to the general population of the country, and the reasons are specific-poor working conditions.The controversy over the life expectancy of police officers in Nigeria is not limited to poor remuneration, but also the issue of kitting. When you refuse to provide someone with the appropriate equipment for an assignment, especially such assignments that are associated with high risks, you are politely assigning the person to death.

This article is intended to serve as a tribute, not just for the officers that died yesterday, but all the police that died on duty before them. There is an honourable memorial day quote that reads:

“We don’t know them all, but we owe them all. We come not to mourn our dead heroes but to praise them. We stand for the flag, we kneel for the fallen”.

May this accident prompt the government of Nigeria to do a great deal of soul-searching, with regards the situation of the police. And may the souls of the fallen, rest in perfect peace, ameen.